Pair of early morning earthquakes strike near Pomona

POMONA >> Folks across Los Angeles County and beyond got a rude awakening this morning as they felt a series of earthquakes that struck near Pomona early Thursday morning.

The two largest of the quakes — a magnitude 3.7 that struck at 4:43 a.m. followed by a magnitude 3.8 that struck at 5:06 a.m. — jolted people out of bed and were felt as far away as southern Orange County, according to the USGS.

No damage was reported anywhere, according to officials from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department San Dimas station and the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

The earthquakes struck two miles northwest of Pomona.

Glendora resident Tim Lynch said he was awakened by the tremors.

“They were two pretty good sized quick jolts,” said Lynch, who lives near Citrus College.

Lynch is spokesman for Cal Poly Pomona. He said nothing was damaged at the university.

The first jolt was felt as far away as Santa Clarita and Huntington Beach, according to the USGS Did You Feel It? citizen reporting map. The second quake was felt as far away as Laguna Beach.

Seismologists call the series of quakes a “doublet” because it involved two similar tremors in the same location within a short period of time, according to a report by the Southern California Seismic Network.

According to the report, the quakes are actually part of a longer series of 25 small earthquakes over the past 10 days near the area.

Among the series were a magnitude 1.6 quake that struck between the two larger tremors, a 1.7 that struck just afterward and a 1.2 that hit at 8:13 a.m. A 1.6 also shook the area at 2:37 p.m.